The Fourteenth Doctor Adventures
by Everettism
Summary: An ongoing collection of stories starring Jameela Jamil as the next incarnation of the Doctor. Follow her as she encounters new friends, new enemies, new worlds, new times and new adventures! Reviews and constructive criticism are welcome.
1. Renewal: Part One

**New Year's Eve, 2019**

The party was in full swing now. Friends and family dancing around the living room, jumping and swaying to the music of Queen blasting out from the speakers. Others stood in the kitchen, laughing and toasting the new year. The Christmas tree had been knocked over, it was now leaning against a wall uneasily, probably by some of the kids or someone who's had a bit too much beer.

Nicole stared at her drink, arms folded, laid back in her chair, watching as the air bubbles rose to the top of the glass, fizzling and crackling as they did. She was sat in the backgarden, early fireworks going off into the late night sky, contemplating her entire life up until this moment, this night, this party. It wasn't her party (in fact, she had been planning to spend this New Year's Eve on her own watching telly), so she didn't feel any obligation to socialise. Most of the people in there annoyed the hell out of her.

There was a knock from behind her and Nicole turned around to see Sandra, the party host and her closest friend, standing behind the glass pateo door that lead from the kitchen into the backgarden, with two mugs of tea and a smile on her face. Nicole grinned back and gestured for her to join her at the table. Sliding the door back, Sandra stepped out onto the crisp winter grass and placed the mugs on the table in front of her, passing one over to Nicole.

"I thought you'd prefer tea." Sandra said as she pulled up a chair beside her friend.

"Thanks, mum." Nicole joked and the two giggled away like they had always done ever since they'd hung out together on the primary school playgrounds.

They both watched as an array of gold sparkles erupted above them from the house next door. Nicole pushed her alcohol aside and took an overly large gulp of her tea, not realising how hot is was, causing her to cough and splutter for a moment. Sandra could do nothing but laugh.

"God, you're a mess." She sighed as Nicole relaxed.

"Yeah, I know. But you still love me?"

"Always, Nic. Hey, speaking of love, you never told me how that date went a few weeks ago with, uhh, what's her face? Shelia?"

"You mean Shona?"

"Yeah, her!"

"It's weird how I keep track of all your dates and you never remember any of mine." Stated Nicole.

"I remembered Shirley."

"No, it's not Shirley, it's Sho-" As she spoke, Nicole realised that Sandra was misremembering delibrately, given away by the guilty looking snigger she had just let out, "Stop!" She lightly punched her friend in the arm and they were back in heaps of giggles.

"So, how'd it go?" Sandra brought the conversation back around.

"Well, it was nice, at first," Nicole began, "until I saw her get a text from her girlfriend about feeding the cats."

"Oh, babes." Sandra put her hands over her wide open mouth.

"I know. I'm allergic to cats." Nic tried to quip, but Sandra was too sympathetic to laugh.

"Come 'ere." She spread out her arms and they shared a tentative warm hug.

"It's fine, really. Maybe I'm just no luck with girls. Should I try guys again?"

"Y'know, Nic, if I was bi too, I'd be all over you. Hey, that rhymed!"

"How much have you drunk tonight?" Nicole cocked an eyebrow, accusingly.

"Now who sounds like a mum?" More chuckling ensued.

The pateo door opened once again and a bloke with a shaggy mop of chesnut hair poked his head out.

"Only five minutes to go, ladies! We're gonna put on the TV and watch the countdown." He announced, his speech pattern suggesting he was slightly tipsy.

"Alright, Darren, we'll be in soon. Make sure everyone's in the living room for midnight, got it?" Sandra pointed a finger at him.

"Anything for you, my sweet Sandra." And with a flash of his pearly white teeth, Darren disappeared back into the house.

"Never liked the BBC One New Year's Show. Only good for the London fireworks." Sandra confessed, noticing Nicole was staring off into the dark abyss of her garden, "You gonna come in and watch too?"

"Yeah, sure. You go in first, I just wanna be out here for another minute." Nicole lied, knowing full well she wasnt going to come in and get trampled by the celebrating partiers.

"Hey, I know it's pretty late notice, but you can stay round here tonight, if you want? Saves you the trouble of driving back to yours, even though I know you ain't drunk nothing."

"Cheers, San." From inside the house, there was the sound of something smashing followed by a great big cheer, "Sounds like you better go sort that out."

"Yeah, s'pose. See ya in a bit." Sandra blew a kiss before quickly darting inside to stop everyone from destroying her house anymore.

Nicole got up from her seat and wandered out further into the garden. It wasn't a very big garden, square in shape, about 7 metres by 8 metres, a small wooden shed in the far righthand corner. Another few fireworks going off diverted her attention, as she snapped her head upwards to see three beautiful bursts of red, green and blue light, followed by the loud crashes of sound that accompanied them.

Nicole began thinking about her life again. How had she got here? Not literally how she got there (she'd driven), more in the sense of 'how had she got to this point in her life?' She was 23, working at a Clarkes shoe shop just up the town high-street, living in a one-bedroom flat with a landlord threatening to up the rent everytime he saw her, stuck in a perpetual cycle of the same routine. It might as well have been Groundhog Day, that's how little difference it would have made. Nicole was ready to make a change, to do something new.

New.

A new year can be a fresh start for a lot of people. A _resolution_ to their lives. So why not her? Nicole was ready to make a change and that change started now; tonight! 2020 was going to be Nicole's year and she was going to make it happen. Nicole was going to be _renewed_. Oppurtunity was out there, all she had to do was go and find it. It wasn't just going to drop out of the sky...

* * *

 **94.5 Million Miles Away**

Flares of solar energy ripped through the empty space, spewing out from the eye-melting ball of inferno that was the sun, ferociously burning like it had been doing since it was born and would continue to do so for millions upon millions more years. It was blindingly bright, almost impossible to see anything beyond or around it. However, something was very close to it, hurtling at tremendous speed towards the colossal tyrant of heat along with a cluster of asteroids and spacs debris that had been caught in its awesome slipstream:

A small, wooden, blue box.

The lantern on its roof illuminated on and off every few seconds, blue electrical sparks and flakes of paint flying off its edges as it journeyed closer to the star. A few large rocks that the box had swept up in its chaotic flight had now gained even more velocity and shot off ahead of it, colliding with one of the large previously mentioned solar flares, causing them to be torn apart, erupting in a huge whirlwind of dust, fire and stone that collided with the blue shooting casket. There was a tremendous clash, almost powerful enough to obliterate the thing. Yet, the box continued on its travel, bruised and battered, but still in one piece.

For now.

This was no ordinary box. That was obvious. It was a ship. A ship that was bigger on the inside. Within its four singed wooden walls held another entire room. In fact, it was another entire dimension! Through the doors that remained the same on the other side led to a wide open space. Hexagonal, criss-crossing metal walls that were stacked apart from each other held the machine together, slowly curving inwards that gave the impression of a dome. However, they reached such a high altitude it was impossible to determine how high the ceiling was, or how large the room expanded to.

At the centre of the lit area, on a raised level up off the ground, sat a sharp, mesmeric, six-sided control console. A time glass, two huge levers, dials, pressure gages, switches and pedals made up just a few of its devices, messily scattered across it. Embedded in the middle of the hexagon was a huge crystal that glowed a deep and strong orange, along with the floors, background walls, inner console and the six crystalline pillars that surrounded it. The monuments were curved towards the central crystal, almost as if they focussed power on it, giving it the strength to rise and fall in a melodic sequence, like the lantern on its roof.

However, it wasn't that peaceful. Steam and smoke bellowed out from the seams of the console, more firery sparks pinging off every surface, deafening explosions launching out from the mix-match checkered walls, flames violently pushing up out from the floor. The warm orange glow now flickered and stifled with every rise and fall from the crystal, which had gained a rather nasty looking crack straight down through its core. Unprecedented turbulence rocked the ship, unearthly groans shuddering through the very fabric of the capsule.

But it wasn't empty.

On the raised platform, lying amongst pieces of broken glass and burnt chunks of the walls and sizzling pipes that had been blown out from underneath the console, was a woman. She lay on her front, wriggling slightly, as if something was happening to her. There was a sudden and lethal jolt that launched her around 180 degrees so that she was now on her back. The lady was blond and wore a hooded, lilac-blue trench coat with a dark blue lining and a rainbow pattern on its edges, along with a dark blue t-shirt that featured another rainbow pattern running across its chest. For trousers, she had high-waisted teal blue culottes, held up by yellow braces. On her feet were thick blue striped socks and laced brown leather boots.

Now she was on back, it was clear to see why she was wriggling and twitching. Her face, her hands, her uncovered skin and her brown-rooted hair was all warping and shifting and glowing, glistening with some alien energy, pulsing away and somehow... changing her. Her features were morphing, becoming something else, somebody else. Whatever was happening, it wasn't important right then, as the impossible box was now dangerously close to the sun, so near to oblivion. Not even it could withstand that.

A holographical display on the console, projected onto one of the panels, read 'EARTH TIME: 31/12/19 - 11:58' before glitching to '11:59'. Exactly one minute until the new year and, entirely coincidentally, one minute until the ship was destroyed. All that needed to be done was to pull down on one single lever and divert its course away from the sun. There was only one person that could do that and she knew it. With all her strength, the woman swung one of her sparking arms up onto the panel, setting off an array of sparks around it when it crashed against the controls.

As Sandra and the party goers gathered around the TV, watching the live coverage at Westminster before the world renowned fireworks display, the mysterious lady moved her hands along the console to where the lever was situated. The countdown had begun, Nicole could hear it from outside. The collective chant of,

"14. 13. 12. 11. 10!"

The woman found the saviour lever, wrapping her hand around it tightly. She attempted to yank it down, but it was stuck! A large shard of glass had become wedged in between the release mechanism.

"9! 8! 7! 6!"

She tried and tried and tried.

"5!"

With all her might.

"4!"

But then.

"3!"

In the nick of time.

"2!"

The glass smashed under the strength of the lever.

"1!"

And the woman was able to pull it down with an enormous and satisfying clank.

* * *

"HAPPY NEW YEAR!" Came the earth-shuddering cry from inside the house.

In Westminster, the people cheered and screamed in absolute delight as the London Eye disappeared in the smoke and light that it had released, more fireworks launching from the top of the Elizabeth Tower. 2019 had been and gone. It was now 00:00am, 1st January 2020. A time to smile.

Nicole smiled too, as the sky around her was lit up with brightness, bathing her in an incredible rainbow glow, regenerating her into the new person she was going to become that day.

* * *

The same thing was happening to the mysterious lady, only in a more physical sense rather than Nicole's emotional regeneration. As soon as she had used the lever, which had immediatly caused the box to do a complete U-turn and shoot off in the exact opposite direction to the way it had come, the woman's arm completely transformed with the energy emanating off it dissipating. The arm dropped down behind the console before a totally new and different person clambered up to their feet.

With a blink, their eyes adjusted to their surroundings. All they could exclaim when they saw the state the room was in was,

"Bloody hell!" The Doctor boldly cried before a showering of sparks from the console caused them to jump back and shield their face with their hands.

Once it was over, the Time Lord opened their eyes again and realised the fact that they had brand new appendages. Not only that, but their entire body had changed. Regeneration!

"I'm alive! I'M ALIVE!" They proclaimed, beaming from ear to ear at this fact.

They began inspecting their new form. For starters, the skin colour was different. Brown. That was nice, they hadn't been anything but white so far, so it was a pleasant change. Soft and smooth skin too, they were off to a good start! Gender, now this one needed some feeling for... yep, still a woman. Size, not overweight, thin enough. About the same as last time. However, they were definitely taller. She estimated nearly 6 foot. She then ran her fingers through her hair, discovering it to be long and black. She had been hoping for possibly a pixie cut but it was fine. Everything seemed to be in order.

"Right then, change! And not a moment too-" Suddenly, the Doctor burst out laughing mid-sentence, beginning to pace around the console as she did, "HA! HA! HA! Fantastic!"

Then, the Time Lord stopped dead in her tracks, looking off wistfully into the distance with a reminiscent expression on her face. At this moment, smoke began rising up from the patch of floor directly beneath her feet.

"Doctor, I let you go." She uttered before hurrying back to the spot she had regenerated.

Seconds after she had moved, the patch of floor she had been previously standing on erupted outwards, with some kind of tank having overheated and exploded underneath it. The Doctor bumped into the console and began flicking switches in a panicked manner.

"No, no, no, no, no!" The time traveller worried, turning around and leaning against the controls, biting her bottom lip as she did, "Time and space... Time and space! There is no time. It's unravelling. Collapsing!" A devastating thought popped into her mind, "Entropy." She then realised that she was talking complete bollocks, "WHO. AM. I?"

As soon as the words had left the Doctor's mouth, she felt a massive surge of pain in her head. She groaned and clasped her hands around it, before more glowing regeneration energy spewed out in a line that split directly down her face.

"My head is splitting in two!" She squealed, but managed to retract the excess power with a sigh of relief.

Next thing she knew, the Time Lord started shivering uncontrollably as she experienced a spine-tingling chill across her entire body. She clutched the sides of her arms and started rubbing, frantically, to try and gain some heat. It was like having the worst cold flush ever.

"Cold... so cold..." The Doctor's teeth chattered.

Another thought and she stopped quaking and dug her hands deep into the pockets of her coat. Eventually, she gave a smug grin as she pulled out a short light blue scarf with a small rainbow pattern that she had worn on the last new year's day. In a flash, it was around her neck and she could feel the warmth returning almost instantly, closing her eyes and enjoying the feeling. For a moment, she was lost in herself, relaxed, unaware of the world around her.

A bump of turbulence soon snapped her out of it as the Doctor fell back onto the console and began laughing again. She looked at the hologram display in front of her, reading the ship's current flight pattern and the planet they were heading towards: Earth!

"Of course! HA!" She cheered, twisting a dial and spinning the time glass, causing the box to travel faster, spiralling downwards to the planet with a trail of smoke and flame bellowing out from behind.

"Happy New Me!"

* * *

 **END OF PART ONE**


	2. Renewal: Part Two

**New Year's Day, 2020**

Cautiously and quietly, Nicole clicked the handle on the pateo door and pushed it to her right. She crept through into the kitchen inside before closing it behind her, trying her best not to make a sound. It was just coming up to 2:30am and the party had died down significantly. The once-loud and thundering celebratory music from the living room was now a soft background hum, currently playing through Enya's greatest hits.

Nicole ventured further, stepping over empty plastic cups, beer bottles, used party poppers, split alcohol and, occasionally, the unconscious drunk. And that was only the kitchen. She turned a corner into the living room, firstly noticing that the Christmas tree was now lying on the sofa, with Darren asleep underneath. Nicole assumed it was just him, until there was a sleepy groan from the other side of the settee before Sandra rolled over, putting her arm around Darren. Nicole resisted the urge to laugh, instead opting for a grin and an eye roll.

From the state of the house, it looked like it had been one hell of a party, which made Nicole glad that she had missed it. Getting blackout drunk and waking up in bed with some random person she had no memory of ever talking to wasn't exactly her idea of a fun time. She wandered to the front door, her jacket still hanging on the coat rack beside it. Not that she was against staying over at Sandra's (they'd had many sleepovers and all-nighters since they were teenagers), it had just been one of those nights. Right then, Nicole needed to go out into the world by herself and get her life back.

Clunk! The door slipped shut, the automatic locks snapping into the place, as Nicole began walking up the path through the front garden before turning onto the street and heading down the road to where she'd parked her car. She zipped up her jacket and shoved a pair knitted gloves over each of her hands, the early morning chill was really bitter today. As she paced along the pavement, Nicole started planning how she was going to turn her life around.

To begin with, new flat. Nicole's landlord had been getting to weird for her. Probably a bit racist. She thought best to ditch her current place fast before he did actually push up the rent cost. Maybe she _could_ stay with Sandra for a bit while she house searched? Next, she'd need to find a new job. While her current job at Clarkes paid well enough, it was just too samey for her and samey was exactly the opposite of what she wanted. What did she want?

This made Nicole stop, just as she was crossing, right in the middle of the road. The streetlight above her sparked on, as if on cue, acting like an interrogation light, pressuring her to think and confess. Was change all she wanted? She could just try to act differently, make little decisions different each day. It wasn't just change. Nicole wanted a whole new experience, a whole different way of living her life, for every day to be different. To be an adventure.

But that was just the childlike wild imagination in her. This was the regular, boring, real world where dreams and imagination were frowned upon. Life was doing what everyone else did, staying in between the lines, logical and miserable. If you wanted to be different, you had to do it yourself. Adventures didn't just happen.

A great wind began to pick up, sweeping through the street, wheezing and whistling. It was strong, flinging up bits of rubbish and paper into the air. Nicole's hair flapped across her face, blinding her for a few seconds before she could pull it back. Once her vision was restored, she watched as a large black and blue police box tumbled over the houses that surrounded her, hot red and orange pouring out from its windows, a thick sooty smoke trail left in its path. The box zoomed through the sky and disappeared behind more houses.

Nicole was astounded by what she had just witnessed. She could barely believe it was real. Was it real? It was late, she was tired, maybe she was hallucinating? The thoughts spun around her head, dizzying her, it felt like she was back on the old school roundabout in the playground, with Sandra pushing her faster and faster, making her feel sick.

Focus, she needed to focus. With a large gulp and a deep breath, Nicole recovered and put on a serious face. Whatever she had just seen, it looked like it was in trouble. She wanted different, this was a good way to start. It was heading in the direction of the nearby meadow, High Cloister. Someone might have been inside. They may need help. Nicole leapt into her car, twisted the ignition, pulled back the handbrake and she was off, speeding down the deserted street, on her way to make a difference.

* * *

Being a meadow, High Cloister didn't have any lights. So when Nicole pulled up in front of it, all she could see was darkness and the outline of the trees that made up the woodland area within. Her car headlights dimmed into nothing as she removed her key, locking the vehicle behind her once she was out. The black and grey line was still hanging in the air above, leading right into the nature reserve, so she knew what to follow.

Nicole unlocked her phone and pressed against the touchscreen, activating the flashlight app. At least now she could see where she was going. As she walked across the grass, her converses sank lightly into the ground with each footstep. It had rained the day before, so the land was soft like a plumped up pillow. Pillow. Oh, how Nicole longed to be in bed. What was the time now? Her tired eyes darted to the small digital clock at the top of the screen. 2:45 in the morning, wonderful! Why didn't she just go home? The police could deal with this.

But that's what the old Nicole would've done. Nicole reminded herself that it was time to do something different this year. As the last of her doubt evaporated, she clambered up to the top of the hill (the reason the meadow was called High Cloister) and looked down the other side to see the strange box, its windows completely smashed, a mix of steam and smoke rising up off it. From the looks of it, the thing had come sailing over the hill before lauching down and colliding with a tree with such force that it had split it in half. The box was resting against the treestump that remained.

"Holy crap." Nicole breathed, taken aback by this.

Still trying to make sense of what she was seeing, she carefully climbed down to the burning casket, her expression remaining that of confused and bewildered. Once she had reached the point it had landed, Nicole realised that she had absolutely no idea what to do next. She hadn't had a single thought beyond following and finding the box.

There was a grumble before a loud smash came from inside it, causing Nicole to spring back in fright, bashing into a large tree behind her. More banging noises began emanating from within as Nicole's hands clutched tightly around the bark of the wooden oak. All went slient for a moment. Everything became still. Nicole slowly relaxed, assuming it had just been the box... cooling down?

But suddenly, one of its singed double doors burst dramatically outwards, a great swell of smoke and orange light expelling with a hiss. It wasn't too long before a tall woman, with shiny black hair and incredible cheekbones, stumbled into the doorway. Her eyes were wide open as she examined her surroundings, dazed.

"I... I did it. I did it!" A large, overly smug grin grew across the Doctor's face, "Not bad, for a crash landing."

The Time Lord bounded out onto the hill, kicking the TARDIS door shut behind her with one of her boots before squatting down and thrusting one of her hands into the ground. She retracted it and shoved the great pile of soil she had just scooped up into her mouth. As she tasted the mud, she analysed its properties, beginning to work out where she was.

"Yep, 21st Century Earth. 2020... New Year's Day, 2020! Somewhere in south east England..." She swallowed and plucked a crisp blade of grass, licking it with her now dirt-coated tongue, "Essex, maybe, possibly, definitely! Definitely Essex. At a guess, Brentwood."

The sound of a twig snapping under something's weight diverted her attention, as the Doctor twisted her head around 90 degrees to the right to see a short (well, shorter than her), dark haired, Asian woman in her late twenties, pressed up against a tree a few metres beside her. The time traveller noticed that her facial expression was that of shock, so attempted to calm her fears, springing up and clapping her hands together, unthreateningly.

"Well... nice night for a stroll." The Doctor chuckled, uneasily, but the woman remained frozen still, her eyes fixed on the police box as flames continued to push out through the broken frames of what had used to be windows, "Oh! Don't mind her. She just got a bit 'up close and personal' with the sun, that's all. She'll be good as new tomorrow."

"Who- But it just-" The young woman stuttered, collecting her thoughts.

"Now then, New Year's Day! I remember the original, actually." The Time Lord's expression changed from happy-go-lucky to incredibly thoughtful in a flash, "Remembering, that's good. A mind like mine after a change like that, it could go very wrong very quickly. Need to keep focussed and controlled."

"What are you-"

"-Don't suppose you've got a name? Most humans do. Unless you don't, which is totally fine by me. I know what it's like." She cut in, springing back into her previous cheerful tone.

"Umm, Nicole." Replied Nicole.

"Hello there, Nicole." As she spoke, the Doctor reached over and grabbed Nicole's hand, shaking it vigourously whilst also unplucking Nicole from the tree she had been clinging to with all her strength, "I'm the Doctor, I hope."

"You 'hope' you're the Doctor?" Nicole managed to prize her hand back from the woman, rubbing it a little after.

"Yes, I hope. My head's been quite positively scrambled, I've got lots of things going on inside my body at the moment, lots of changes. I could be anyone." The Doctor darted her head around to the left, staring into the darkness, "Right now, I'm a stranger to myself." She finished, her voice fluctuating to a Yorkshire accent when she uttered the last sentence, causing her to smile when she did.

"Are you okay?" Nicole had begun to wonder if this person was, as Sandra would say, 'all there in the head'.

Perhaps she was an escapee lunatic from a mental asylum somewhere? It was certainly possible...

But a magic flying box crashing out of the sky on fire?

Perhaps it was Nicole who was the lunatic.

" _Okay_?" The Doctor slowly twisted her head back to make eye contact and gave a face that suggested she was unimpressed (and slightly disgusted) with this question from her new aquaintance, before snapping back with, "I just came climbing out of my half destroyed TARDIS, which is on the verge of completely falling apart, after having my entire physical form regenerate and you ask if I'm... _okay_?"

"Wait, what do you mean re-"

"AAAGGHH!" Again, Nicole was prevented from finishing her speech, as the Doctor screamed violently out in pain, dropping to her knees, the mysterious energy streaming out from a split in her face like it had done before.

"Bloody hell!" The human woman dramatically exclaimed, flinching back when the burst of power occurred like any normal person would.

The Time Lord continued to wail in agony through gritted teeth, her arms aimed down at the ground, head looking up at the starry-night sky, clenching her fists so tightly that they went red, to try and even remotely cope with the amount of torment she was being put under. Nicole didn't understand what was happening, as she stared at the warping white light glimmering and flaring across the Doctor's face. Looking straight at the energy, Nicole thought she could see the woman's face shift and sort of glitch to those of different people, such as a wrinkled old gentleman with very poignant eyebrows or a wide-eyed person with a grin that stretched far and wide.

But, with a loud and exhausted cry, the Doctor cranked her neck down and the firey power which had consumed her facial features for the past thirty seconds was sucked back into her head, leaving the time traveller exactly as she had been before, except slightly more tired and sweaty. Now believing this odd event to have passed, Nicole bent down and put hand on the Time Lord's shoulder.

"No..."

"N-No?" Nicole repeated, stuttering due to confusion.

"No... No, I'm not okay." The Doctor wheezed, panting with little breath in her lungs.

"I don't know what that was, but I think you need to get to a hospital." The Clarkes' employee reached for her phone in her pocket, but the Doctor pressed her hand against it, pushing it back into Nicole's jacket with what little strength she could muster.

"No, no hospitals. This is Essex, they might try to treat me with fake tan and a spot on the next series of TOWIE." She said (with Nicole not knowing if she was joking or being serious) before rubbing her eyes and clearing her throat, becoming a bit less dazed, "What I need is good rest and... yes, a good old cup of tea. Do they still have tea in 2020?"

"I don't know, the year's just started. But we had tea in 2019, so we probably still have it now." After she spoke, the Doctor noticed Nicole's wit was not too dismilar to her own.

Just an observation. For now, at least.

"It was Nicole, wasn't it?"

"Yeah."

"Well, Nicole, I don't suppose you've got a flat or a house or a caravan or something, do you?"

"A flat, just down by Mill Lane." Nicole informed, "Why?"

"Umm, I know we've just met and all and you're probably very, very confused as to what's going on, but would it be possible for me to stay at your flat? Just until I'm back to normal... whatever normal is for me, now."

"Oh, I..."

 _New year, new me._

"...yeah. Yeah, sure."

"Wonderful!" The Doctor exhaled with relief as she went to get up, but her grin soon dipped.

"What's wrong?" Nicole noticed the dip.

"Yeah, you might have to give me some help here."

"Why?"

"My legs have appeared to stop working." She sheepishly admitted, her cheeks reddening.

"How can your- You know what, never mind. Gimmie your arm." Requested Nicole, scooping up the Doctor as the Time Lord slung one of her arms over the young woman.

Together, they rose to their feet and steadily began manoeuvring up the frosty hillside, one step at a time. The sound of some made of glass smashing from inside the box caused Nicole to pull the Doctor back around, gesturing to the box which was still furiously burning away, the only light in the darkness.

"Umm, what about that thing?"

"Like, I said, she'll be fine. I did say that, right?" The Doctor answered and asked.

"Yeah, you did." Nicole confirmed to her, but quickly added, "You also said it was half destroyed and on the verge of completely falling apart."

"Well, I'm fairly sure she'll be fine. Believe me, she's been through worse than that."

And with that, they continued their climb up High Cloister...

Once they had reached Nicole's parked car and disappeared into the early morning streets on the way to her flat, something even odder than everything that happened that New Year's Day so far started. Beside the smoking blue casket, there was a spark of some kind of lilac electricity, puffing out of thin air. Then, more sparks, that slowly began changing into something. The blinding blue light suddenly flashed to dark crimson before the energy expanded and formed into a huge ominous black shape.

Silhouetted against the orange inferno of the TARDIS, the shape hung there, hovering a metre above the ground. Suddenly, the shape moved, making low gargle of noise as it did. It was alive. It had the outline of an upside down teardrop, its covered in coal scales with dark brown tips. With another light shift, the creature sprung into its full form. Two claw-like wings flapped outwards, unfurling, as what appeared to be a head raised up, the eyelids snapping open to unveil its horrific red glowing eyes.

As it adjusted to the world around it, its four pincers (which had been nested in a bundle against the beast's chest) launched themselves in opposite directions, revealing the thing's large fang-lined mouth. A terrible, earth-shuddering shriek emanated from it, echoing through the meadow...

* * *

 **END OF PART TWO**


End file.
